Ask Professor Pigskin Aug 22

Professor Pigskin returns

Professor Pigskin is back after a two-year hiatus. During that time, he received a Doctorate in Defense and a Graduate Degree in Gridiron. For those new to the Professor, these are (mostly) real questions he received from texts, e-mails, friends, radio callers, and Brad’s dad.

How do you think Arizona will do this year?

The million dollar and most frequent question. It is really tough to project how the Wildcats will be since there are a lot of unknowns. The good news is the first five games are not only winnable, but the Wildcats may very well be favored in all five. Hawaii is the only team in the first five who had a winning record a year ago and three of the five are in Tucson.

After that the schedule gets much tougher. The Wildcats face Washington, USC and Stanford, with the final two games of the stretch on the road. The Cats get a one-game reprieve with Oregon State, then three more tough games with Oregon, Utah, and ASU. Two of the final three are also on the road.

Based on the schedule I think the Wildcats could win between 5-7 games. I am an optimist, I say the Wildcats are 6-5 heading into the ASU game and will go to a bowl at 7-5.

Is Khalil Tate a good quarterback?

When Khalil Tate runs he is an excellent quarterback. When Khalil Tate does not run he is an average QB. More importantly, when Arizona runs effectively the Wildcats win. In the 10 games that the Wildcats have won with Tate taking the bulk of the snaps, the Wildcats have rushed for more than 200 yards nine times and more than 300 yards six times. The lone outlier was last year’s Cal game where Arizona had two defensive scores. The Cats ran for just 124 yards and passed for less than 200 as well.

In the eight losses the Wildcats have suffered with Tate taking the bulk of the snaps, the Wildcats have eclipsed 200 yards just two times. One of those was last year’s ASU game, where the Wildcat offense was not the problem and Tate threw for 282 yards. The Wildcats also ran for more than 200 yards in the 2017 loss to ASU and when Tate left the game in the first half with an injury the Wildcats had the lead.

If the Wildcats can run, with or without Tate carrying the ball, then he is an effective passer and they win football games. When the defense is forced to put eight or nine in the box, it opens things up and Tate becomes a more effective passer or if the run game is even more dominant, it allows the offense to limit the number of throws altogether.

During fall camp we heard from the media how good Grant Gunnell looked, but he goes into the Hawaii game as the No. 3 quarterback. Was the media wrong?

Probably not. The media does not get to watch a lot of camp and it could be entirely true that Gunnell looked very good. Physically he appears to have more tools than Rhett Rodriguez. That being said, he may not have the grasp of the offense that Rodriguez does. All indications are that Rodriguez has a great grasp of the concepts. Gunnell probably did look very good in camp but may not have enough of the playbook under his belt to truly serve as the No. 2 quarterback.

Of course, I don’t put a ton of stock into early season depth charts. We have seen time and time again that players are listed with the ones, only to barely play in the season opener. We have also seen cases of a player not even being on the two-deep and end up getting the start. A lot will depend on what the situation is when the Cats need/want to turn to their No. 2 and what their plans are in terms of trying to redshirt Gunnell. While the four-game cushion gives them some flexibility, they might not want him to get the bulk of the reps with the twos if the hope is to redshirt him. 

Brad Allis is an award winning journalist who has covered University of Arizona athletics since the mid 90's. Yes, he is old. His first novel, King of Calamity, is available now.